Murphy & Steifel To Appear On "Gossip Girl"

According to a report in the NY Times, Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel will appear on the TV show Gossip Girls. They will "play guests at a fictional ballet gala attended by the show’s ruling frenemies, Blair (Leighton Meester) and Serena (Blake Lively)." The episode will be broadcast on Nov. 8. I've never seen the show, but I might tune in. (I believe the show is on Channel 11 in New York.)

GILLIAN MURPHY AND ETHAN STIEFEL TO APPEAR ON
GOSSIP GIRL, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8 ON THE CW

American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancers Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel
will make a cameo appearance on the CW’s hit television series Gossip Girl on
November 8, 2010. The episode, which was filmed in September, features Ms. Murphy
and Mr. Stiefel as guests at a fictional ballet gala at Lincoln Center.
Gossip Girl airs at 9:00 P.M. EST on The CW Network.

Pretty disappointing - they were on so briefly. No dancing, in fact the main characters depart before the "gala" begins. However, the Plaza looked nice. One of the characters said, "Meet me outside of the Dress Circle". Correct me if I'm wrong but the Dress Circle is at the Met; the STATE Theatre has "rings". A tiny detail but why not get it right?

. One of the characters said, "Meet me outside of the Dress Circle". Correct me if I'm wrong but the Dress Circle is at the Met; the STATE Theatre has "rings". A tiny detail but why not get it right?

True but keep in mind that the show is geared towards a large audience that knows nothing of the details of the theaters at Lincoln Center and probably doesn't care very much. And the writers gear their descriptions to this very general audience.(I'm trying not to be too cynical here)

And I guess "Dress Circle" may have seemed a more glamorous kind of location than, say, "Third Ring". Meet me outside of the Third Ring??? What does that mean??? It may have been determined to be a bit confusing and not posh enough sounding.

Although why not use Grand Tier instead of Dress Circle? But it's probably not worth trying to dig too deeply into the reasons behind the script!

Gossip Girl isn't too good about fact-checking... I wonder how much the writers know about NYC at all. Dan has lived in "Williamsburg" for four years while the apartment building they show is clearly in DUMBO. They also sent a few characters to NYU out of financial concerns, when NYU is one of the most expensive private schools in the country. They did a flashback episode a few years ago and introduced a new character, Serena's father Keith, but when he appeared on the show in real time a year later he had a different first name, William!

So I guess be glad they said "dress circle" at all and not "pretzel stand" or something!